Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Members of Congress are concerned over how much influence the Military Religious Freedom Foundation may have in military policies that critics fear may curtail religious freedom within the Armed Forces.

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) is circulating a letter on Capitol Hill seeking assurances from the Department of Defense that the religious freedoms of service members are protected.

He also wants to know who the Pentagon has been consulting with on revisions to religious freedom regulations.

“Congress deliberately included religious freedom protections in the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) to address this growing pattern of hostility and to protect the constitutionality guaranteed right of religious freedom for our service members and chaplains,” Lamborn wrote in a letter obtained by Fox News.

President Obama took the unusual step of noting that the conscience protections were “unnecessary and ill-advised.”

Lamborn said the president’s statement – along with reports of Christianity under attack have raised “concerns that the military is developing a culture that is hostile to religion.”

Yes, Bullies against Christians in the military.

As we all know, for many years now, Hollywood and television has been on a pro-gay anti-Christian crusade. It has gotten old, but it keeps coming.

Tim Tebow was chastised for practicing his Christian belief, yet a homosexual basketball player is applauded by the left because he came out of the closet - no matter how much he lied to everyone including his fiancee.

Rep. Doug Lamborn noted recent incidents that included a 2011 memorandum that banned visitors from bringing Bibles and other religious materials into Walter Reed Hospital and a memorandum from Gen. Norton A. Schwartz that prohibited commanders from notifying Airmen about Chaplain Corps programs.

Last month, an Army briefing labeled Evangelical Christians and Catholics as examples of religious extremism.

Believe it or not, Christians were included on a terrorist list that included Al Qaeda and Hamas.

“It appalls me to hear the military of the freest nation in the world has labeled people of faith as religious extremists and continues this hostile attitude even after offering a half-hearted, public apology,” said Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA).

Collins, who is a minister and Air Force reservist, is demanding the military end all religious censorship.

“Our valiant servicemen and women are fighting every single day to protect our individual freedoms, how can we idly stand aside and let theirs be so easily taken?” he asked.

The latest concerns came after Mikey Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation met with military officials at the Pentagon about an instructional guide on religious tolerance.

Weinstein called for the military to enforce a regulation that he believes calls for the court martial of any service member who proselytizes.

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” Weinstein told Fox News. “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.”

Weinstein compared the act of proselytizing to rape, saying, “It is a version of being spiritually raped and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators.”

The Pentagon initially issued a statement acknowledging that religious proselytizing is not permitted within the Department of Defense.

On May 2, they issued a new statement noting that “service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one’s beliefs (proselytization).”

“The U.S. Department of Defense has never and will never single out a particular religious group for persecution or prosecution,” Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a statement. “The Department makes reasonable accommodations for all religions and celebrates the religious diversity of our service members.”

However, last Thursday, Coast Guard Rear Admiral William Lee dropped a bombshell at a National Day of Prayer gathering in Washington, D.C. when he declared that religious freedom is under attack.

“As one general so aptly put it – they expect us to check our religion in at the door – don’t bring that here,” Lee told the audience. “Leaders like myself are feeling the constraints of rules and regulations and guidance issued by lawyers that put us in a tighter and tighter box regarding our constitutional rights to express our religious faith.”

And the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Freedom reported that an Air Force officer was told to remove a Bible from his desk because it might imply he condoned a certain religion.

Meanwhile, members of Congress and religious liberty groups want to know how much influence Weinstein may have at the Pentagon.

“The fact that the U.S. Air Force is consulting with Mr. Weinstein and possibly allowing him to shape policies relative to religious freedom is of great concern to Christians across the nation,” wrote Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jerry Boykin in a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.

Boykin, an executive vice president of the Family Research Council, said nearly 150,000 people have signed a petition supporting true religious freedom in the military.

So will Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recognize what is going on and support true religious freedom in the military or will he bow to the wishes of the atheists and curtail the religious freedoms of ours who fight to protect those very freedoms?

My bet is he goes against the troops!

SECOND SHOT!

Teacher Who Stomped On American Flag Gets $85,000 State Payout

The dumbass teacher who stomped on an American flag has been paid $85,000 by his school district not to pursue a federal court case.

Lexington-Richland 5 school district paid former Chapin High teacher Scott Compton the money, plus more than $31,500 in lawyer fees and his salary (between $43,340 and $59,647 a year) to not pursue further legal action, The State newspaper reported.

The paper discovered the payment through a South Carolina Freedom of Information Act request.

The payment was not disclosed when Compton resigned on March 27, reportedly for "family and personal reasons."

The agreement also will allow Compton to receive unemployment and receive a letter of recommendation for seeking employment.

Compton stomped on the flag during a classroom lesson that he said was intended to show that a country is more than its symbols.

That set off a furor, prompting Superintendent Stephen Hefner to seek to fire Compton. Hefner called the incident the latest in a pattern of poor judgment.

The State newspaper noted the school district has no standards for the flag's treatment, but that school officials say the act violated the expected conduct of teachers.

No word if anyone has stomped teacher Scott Compton to demonstrate that those who disrespect our country's most precious symbol, a symbol that many have fought and died for, can incur the wrath of those around him.

At least, not yet!

THIRD SHOT!

Military Sex Assault Reports Up

Sexual assaults in the military are a growing epidemic across the services and thousands of victims are still unwilling to come forward despite a slew of new oversight and assistance programs, according to Pentagon documents.

Troubling new numbers estimate that up to 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, according to survey results released against a backdrop of scandals including an ongoing investigation into more than 30 Air Force instructors for assaults on trainees at a Texas base.

The report comes just days after the Air Force's head of sexual assault prevention was arrested last weekend on charges of groping a woman in a suburban Virginia parking lot.

And it follows a heated debate over whether commanders should be stripped of the authority to overturn military jury verdicts, such as one officer did in a recent sexual assault conviction.

The documents did show that the number of sexual assaults actually reported by members of the military rose 6 percent to 3,374 in 2012.

But a survey of personnel who were not required to reveal their identities showed the number of service members actually assaulted could be as many as 26,000, but they never reported the incidents, officials said Tuesday.

While the Associated Press obtained documents and memos related to a new Pentagon report slated for release Tuesday, it was not specific if the sexual assaults were predominately heterosexual or if they were a result of the military's new policy on homosexual behavior.

That number is an increase over the 19,000 estimated assaults in 2011.

The statistics highlight the dismal results that military leaders have achieved in their drive to change the culture within the ranks, even as the services redoubled efforts to launch new programs to assist the victims, encourage reporting, increase commanders' vigilance, and hold homosexual inductrination courses.

Members of Congress are putting together legislation to essentially strip military officers of the authority to overturn convictions for serious offenses such as sexual assault. The measure stem from congressional outrage over an Air Force officer's decision to reverse a jury verdict in a sexual assault case.

Legislation introduced in Congress on Tuesday provides victims with a special military lawyer who would assist them throughout the process, prohibit heterosexual or homosexual sexual contact between instructors and trainees during and within 30 days of completion of basic training or its equivalent and ensure that sexual assault response coordinators are available to help members of the National Guard and reserve.

"We have learned of an increase in the amount of service members experiencing unwanted sexual contact and a decrease in the rate that those incidents are reported," Turner said. "The exact opposite direction of what would indicate a cultural and statistical shift on a problem that affects mission readiness and overall morale of our forces," he said in a statement. "It's clear much more needs to be done both legislatively and structurally, to root out this problem."

According to Pentagon documents, the key conclusion of the report is that "sexual assault is a persistent problem in the military and remains vastly underreported."

The report says that of the 1.4 million active duty personnel, 6.1 percent of active duty women — or 12,100 — say they experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2012, a sharp increase over the 8,600 who said that in 2010.

For men, the number increased from 10,700 to 15,900. A majority of the offenders were military members or Defense Department civilians or contractors, the report said.

All of this is just more proof that our military is no place for social experiments. Whether it's repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against gays serving openly or putting women in roles traditionally only held by men like that of aboad ship, there are certain things that should be left alone.

If it ain't broke, it don't need fixing.

And though someone out there we surely write me saying that "change" is needed. Let me advise them before they put pen to paper that change in itself means nothing. Change can be good and bad.

And yes, some of the changes in the military over the last 20 years due to political pressure is hurting our military.

As an organization charged with our national defense, the armed forces’ role requires a unique esprit de corps. It must have a sense of pride, honor and integrity. The imposition of social experimentation is an anathema to maintenance of the good order and discipline required in defense of the United States.

Is it too much to ask of one who wishes to serve in the military to keep his/her sexual orientation a private matter? Is it too much to ask of one who wishes to serve in the military to keep his/her sexual desires to themselves?

If the military is OK with the loss of men and women for being overweight, then I'm sure that the loss of service members who practice unwanted homosexual or heterosexual conduct won't hurt the military as well.

Those who put their own deviant behaviors ahead of their oath and sense of professionalism deserve to be dishonorably discharged.

FOURTH SHOT!

Reports Show Gun Homicides Down Since 1990s

Gun homicides have dropped steeply in the United States since their peak in 1993, a pair of reports released Tuesday showed, adding fuel to Congress' battle over whether to tighten restrictions on firearms.

A study released by the government's Bureau of Justice Statistics found that gun-related homicides dropped from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. That's a 39 percent reduction.

Another report by the private Pew Research Center found a similar decline by looking at the rate of gun homicides, which compares the number of killings to the size of the country's population.

It found that the number of gun homicides per 100,000 people fell from 7 percent in 1993 to 3.6 percent in 2010, a drop of 49 percent.

Both reports also found the rate of nonfatal crimes involving guns was also down by around 70 percent over that period.

The trend in firearm-related homicides is part of a broad nationwide decline in violent crime over the past two decades, including incidents not involving firearms.

The Justice study also said that in 2011, about 70 percent of all homicides were committed with a firearm, mainly a handgun.

Gun rights advocates have argued that people are safer when they are allowed to own and carry guns.

And no, you will hear very little of this in the liberal mainstream media! The bias bastards don't have the class to tell the truth about gun violence in America - even when the news is good.

It's what we are asked to do.

For Your Convenience

MY ALMA MATER

FFL

For Your Convenience

Lay Some Happiness On Me -- Dean Martin

About me?

About me? Well I'm married, and my wife and I live in California, in a small town with a population of about 200 nestled in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains. I'm originally from Hawaii, of Portuguese ancestry, retired, a former U.S. Marine, old fashion, Catholic, very Conservative, and not Politically Correct. As for being a Cowboy? Yes, you can thank my Grandpa for my Cowboy ways. The years I spent growing up on my grandfather's ranch in Kunia on Oahu in Hawaii helped make me who I am. As for my writing style? I'm an informal writer. You'll find I write the same as if we were talking over a cup of coffee. Why write this blog? Well, my wife and I believe we should celebrate and defend our American culture, values, heritage, our country lifestyle, and all that makes us proud Americans. Like others, we live simple and work hard to make ends meet while thanking God for our blessings. Basically we're just your neighbors with opinions, stories, and information. Thanks for stopping in.